Fishy Passion

It's amazing to see how much new leaves and shoots there are!

And the best thing is that they are growing in indirect light.. with a cling film on the pot!

I thought anubias species were supposed to be hardy...

My Cryptocoryne longicauda is having lots of plantlets shoots coming out....

Signs of good environment?

Amazing new growth from my Crypto Wendtii...

An update on my cryptos that I have planted emmersed in the pot:

More new leaves... more foliage.. new shoots too.. the plants have seemed to have anchored themselves into the gravel firmly.

I checked on the status of my newly potted cryptos earlier in the evening...
and noticed that they were indeed starting to dry up.

I guess.. living on a high rise HDB flat, winds are definitely inevitable.

As such, decided to use microwave cling film to spread over the whole pot, hopefully, this will aid in maintaining the humidity levels within the pot, while still allowing light in!

Wow...

I spent nearly the whole Sunday preparing the planting of my wild cryptos in a pot today...

This post will therefore be a little more picture intensive..

Here are some of the items you will need:

A pot, of course, get one without holes, since crypto will prefer a little water logged environment.

How the moss looks like when dry, and after hydration:

Next added some peat moss to the hydrated sphagnum moss, as it supposedly aids in lowering the pH:

After which, I added a thin layer of activated carbon and charcoal, which supposedly aids adsorption of any toxic stuff:

Next, a layer of lightweight expanded clay aggregate was added, this helps to provide some aeration to the roots area, and also aids in the transport of water from the sphagnum moss area to the soil level at the top:

Final layer, I used a different brand of planting soil mix today, as the usual aquarium shop that I frequent is closed on Sundays, and the neighbouring shop does not stock that brand:

Upon completion, its time to take out the cryptos from their packaging, noticed that some of them have broken leaves, bitten worm hole leaves... signs of really wild cryptos?


The completed pot of wild cryptos... note that there is water filled in the pot.. that the top soil still feels wet, but no dead spots of water, as I do not want to encourage the breeding of mosquitoes!

Hope they will flourish well.. placing them in area with lesser winds and indirect sunlight!

Alright, I really think I have been bitten by the crypto bug!!!

Got myself not one specimen, but another 5 more today!!

Planted 2 in a container already!

Here's one C. longicauda, which I have already planted:

C. sp barclaya, also planted in the container:

Then I realised that I had another 3 specimens not planted, but I am short of 1 container and potting mix to plant the rest, so these 3 will stay bagged temporarily!

C. zakulii

C. purpurea, this specimen has beautiful purple coloured leaves on the underside!

C. cordata

Before I start writing about the new wild crypto I got, would just like to do some sharing on how convenient it is to have a photo in my handphone.

You see some time back I bought some containers from Daiso at IMM, and yesterday, while I was at their Plaza Singapura branch, I was looking high and low for the same model of plastic container so that I could have a stackable design for my bottled garden.

Nearly gave up the search, until I remembered that I have a photo of the container in my handphone! Thank god, the staff there was so friendly and she brought me to the shelf where the containers were placed: right at the bottom of the shelf!

The new containers:

When I removed the wool from the little black container, I realised that it was just a cutting without any roots at all! So let's just hope it will grow well emersed in a bottle!

On the advice of some forummer from Arofanatics, I got some substrate to plant my crypto wendtii in!

Got this brand with Japanese words all over, it is labelled as Custom Soil:

I am trying to grow my Crpyto wendtii emmersed as adviced by some of the forummers in Arofanatics!

Left in its original pot with the wool inside... and just place sufficient water to keep the wool moist...

See how thing goes, hope to see the crypto flower, as it is said that they only do so emmersed and not submerged!